My first experience with wool was on a sunny day in late spring, standing open mouthed, on the edge of the field with my Mum, watching the New Zealand shearers working on my parents flock... My goodness they could move. All tanned and yeh anyway. Wool.
I think I love it because it is the underdog, surpassed by cheep plastic and faux products. It is the heirloom to the fast fashion and throw away culture, the eco to the environmental crisis.
I also find it the most accessible, but I am lucky to know smallholders and shearers.
It saddens me that its value is so little but I am trying to raise its value through creating things from it.
I started creating with raw wool at a peg looming workshop Mum took me on in my 20's.
I picked it up quickly and soon inherited by grandads peg loom. I find the practice very relaxing and a great way to get through a huge quantity of raw fleece. You can make them much more refined by using washed and carded fleece. The details of the weave always stand out when woven like this.

I have also been using a small rigid heddle loom for a few years due to space restraints in a van. So I am still learning. I do currently have two very old, beautiful spinning wheels in my van too. I could probably have made my life easier by just learning to crochet or knit and by using a drop spindle.

My first scarves, to my family I can only apologise. The bright clashing colours of cheep mixed yarn. They refuse to stop wearing them even as I replace them with beautiful handspun creations.

I put them in my shop, even though the hours I have woven into them make folk balk at the price.
But I list them all the same alongside raw wool, peg loom rugs and knitted items from friends who knit my yarn into wearable garments.